Light Up Your Structures With LEDs (93)

Since you liked the video on using LEDs in locos I decided to follow that with one on lighting structures with them. So here is a technique I have been using for several years now that uses LEDs on strips which can be cut into various combinations of LEDs in multiples of 3. Because the strips have adhesive backing they can be attached to the ceilings of buildings and tie even lighting. I'll also show you how you can adjust the brightness of the strips so as not to overdo the brightness. So take a few minutes to see how easy this his to do.

As I mentioned you can order the LED strips from MicroMark www.micromark.com or off of eBay. If you order on eBay make sure to get the DC ones and not AC. You can also Google “5050 LED strips” and dozens of sources will appear. There are also many different size and color options available as well as power supplies.

All Electronics (www.allelectronics.com) is a good source for trim pots but stay down in the 5K or 10K range. One reason I didn’t have a lot of adjustment range in the video was I only had a 1 megohm pot to work with. Single turn trimmers sell for about $0.25 each and less in quantities. When in doibt linear taper is best for this purpose. For a single 3 LED section you probably only need a 1/4W resistor but if it gets warm then move up to 1/2W. Trim pots are rated at 0.3W so if you need more wattage for controlling multiple strips in a daisy chain then the large knob type pots will work as these are rated at 1W and even more.

My book “Wiring Projects for Your Model Railroad” is available from Kalmbach Books and Amazon, Walthers appears to be out of stock now.